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She said: "This incident has deeply disturbed me. Not only finding George in the stable but the implication it has had – I’m considering giving up the yard.

"I have a daughter who is the main rider of the animal.

"She’s now scared of going to the yard.

"Although she does not know the full facts she knows George has been arrested and she’s scared if we go to the stables George could be there and we could be in danger.”

The court heard that when the woman had mentioned to Smith she might sell Ruby, he replied: “You can’t sell Ruby. She’s my mate.”

She said: 'George looks at Ruby as some kind of partner or girlfriend.'

"He seems fixated on her while I doubt he even knows my other horses’ names.”

Rashpal Singh, representing Smith, told the magistrates that his client had no previous convictions and had admitted the offence to the police as soon as he was arrested.

He said: "This was an isolated incident. Mr Smith hasn’t been able to give me a coherent explanation to what led him to do such a thing."

He said Smith had two horses that he would sell straight away and added that his client usually worked as a handyman but had not had a job since his arrest.

He said: "Word has got around the area."

George Smith outside Leicester Magistrates Court

Smith, who had first pleaded guilty to the offence of sex with a living animal at Hinckley Magistrates’ Court earlier this year, was given a four-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.

He was given a 10-year-old ban from contact with animals or acquiring children’s clothes or nappies.

He was also ordered to pay £200 court costs and made subject to a restraining order banning him from contacting Ruby’s owner or her daughter, or going to her stables in the next five years.